Could Veronica Taylor ever voice Ash again?

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Or get someone to emulate Sarah's voice and not veronicas...

Nah. Veronica was the superior voice actress.

 

[snowmint]

Dont tell me that, tell that to the dubbers.

 

[SushiBurrito]

Nah. Veronica was the superior voice actress

That goes for the entire season 1-season 8 cast. I tried watching the Squirtle Squad episode from Pokemon Aim to be A Master and oof they're somehow always worse than I remember. I don't know how they managed to stay this bad 17 years later.

Even the Funimation cast for Dragon Ball Z got it together within 2 years.

 

[snowmint]

Ash is gone. We don't have to worry about the "replacement" actors anymore.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

That goes for the entire season 1-season 8 cast. I tried watching the Squirtle Squad episode from Pokemon Aim to be A Master and oof they're somehow always worse than I remember. I don't know how they managed to stay this bad 17 years later.

Even the Funimation cast for Dragon Ball Z got it together within 2 years.

I absolutely sympathize with this sentiment, which is why they continue to win voice compare after compare online for the majority of people: I vividly recall Dogasu claiming back when I was a child that it'd be another DBZ situation and disagreeing with him then, as I didn't think so viewing MoMP (we don't agree on much VA wise at all, even if I appreciate his Reviews of Episodes and can understand why he hated the dub under either company- we do actually agree on Rogers' Brock in DP but not afterward that said, the intros/OPs, the OST situation & TPCi TRio though). As a grown adult, though, I still do not believe it was sadly: I didn't think the TPCi cast was as good as the 4Kids cast in the roles they established back in 2007...and I still didn't even in 2023 when the Series is now over.

The sad part is Taylor/McInerney probably could voice Ash again if the higher-ups at TPCi would care what the fandom thinks, but they don't, to TPTB at TPCi Natochenny IS the only English Ash for the foreseeable future even if he makes cameos since he voiced him for 17 years now: that's not to say the way some in the fandom attacking Ms. Natochenny personally for it was the right way to go about with death threats early on or the other members of the TPCi cast either, but it is to say the recast was not willing here-- Taylor was never, and has never, been given a chance to continue in the role. The drama that transpired back in 2006-2007 then burned a lot of bridges between the two companies as well as with certain VAs, but I feel ultimately, we fans suffered for it the most as a whole.

The 4Kids main cast genuinely wanted to stay in the roles, and didn't leave by choice, which is why the backlash was so fierce and intense at the time of the switch: unfortunately, life is indeed unfair, thus nothing can be done about it now- it is what it is.

Personally, the VAs I missed the most were Eric Stuart (Brock, James) & Maddie Blaustein (Meowth) if I had to pick only two, though, both of the former's roles post-4Kids to me just sounded way too old for their ages under TPCi and I felt Brock's voice was noticeably deeper and gruffer than prior-- while James had the same goofy tone that arose from Stuart later on-- but in addition to maintaining it, he also sounded decades older and nasally on top of that. With Meowth, I think that's self-explanatory, neither Cathcart nor Wingert did it for me & may Mrs. Blaustein RIP (still do prefer Taylor over Natochenny, Knotz, and Kayzie in the roles she first did in 1998-2006 in English & Lillis over Knotz in her roles too that said).

It's a complex situation, given that the original actors didn't want to stop voice acting the characters. I really miss Taylor and Lillis and it does make me a bit sad knowing I likely won't hear the OG Ash, Misty, May, Jessie, etc. ever again.

Yeah, you can read about it here, very sad even 17 years after the fact:

Pokémon USA recasting controversy - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net

 

[snowmint]

People need to move on. It happened almost 20 years ago.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

People need to move on. It happened almost 20 years ago.

It doesn't change there was a pretty notable quality drop from it for many, though, to clarify: there's a reason the current English VA cast doesn't generally fare well in voice comparisons across the Internet to their predecessors in the old English VA cast or on most sites (i.e. Sean Schemmel as King Kai is a great example of how, outside this franchise, longest in the role =/= necessarily best in the role).

I know the Japanese Version has always been better than either English dub objectively, but it's still always going to be a sore spot IMO how that drama transpired back then leading to this outcome, per se (I shouldn't still feel upset about it decades later, I know, it's just the way the higher-ups treated the main 4Kids cast members at PUSA makes me sad-- I don't blame them for not wanting to come back given they established the roles for 8 years first and had them taken away from them effectively, which is no fault of the TPCi cast as a job is a job and VAs will always do so before and after this event transpired-- but regardless).

 

[snowmint]

It doesn't change there was a pretty notable quality drop from it for many, though, to clarify: there's a reason the current English VA cast doesn't generally fare well in voice comparisons across the Internet to their predecessors in the old English VA cast or on most sites (i.e. Sean Schemmel as King Kai is a great example of how, outside this franchise, longest in the role =/= necessarily best in the role).

I know the Japanese Version has always been better than either English dub objectively, but it's still always going to be a sore spot IMO how that drama transpired back then leading to this outcome, per se (I shouldn't still feel upset about it decades later, I know, it's just the way the higher-ups treated the main 4Kids cast members at PUSA makes me sad-- I don't blame them for not wanting to come back given they established the roles for 8 years first and had them taken away from them effectively, which is no fault of the TPCi cast as a job is a job and VAs will always do so before and after this event transpired-- but regardless).

It was bound to happen. Norman Grossfeld revealed in a recent interview that Canada had a potential shot in dubbing the series first and look how crazy voice actors switches happened there.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

It was bound to happen. Norman Grossfeld revealed in a recent interview that Canada had a potential shot in dubbing the series first and look how crazy voice actors switches happened there.

Fair. I just look at it this way: the original English cast had 8 years and were fortunate enough to have them, so I'm grateful for that (my real regret is that I wish they got to finish the AG Arc, though, would've been proper closure if they hung on for at least 1 more year). It is what it is, though, I will say I'm happy TPCi didn't redub any of it though.

I'm actually glad they didn't, in hindsight, 4Kids obviously had a lot of flaws (as does TPCi) but I always thought the VA work was (mostly, James' goofier deliveries later aside) genuinely solid and memorable in 1998-2006: if Canada got it first, we might've had Saffron Henderson as Ash and Kirby Morrow as Goku, etc. so that would've been interesting.

 

[Hidden Mew]

People need to move on. It happened almost 20 years ago.

On one hand, I can understand why it would still be a sore spot for fans after all this time. It was a sudden decision that caught everyone, even the 4Kids cast, off guard and I remember how intense the backlash was for awhile. We even had to ban discussion on the dub cast for awhile here because of how bad it got. I can understand why people would still prefer the 4Kids cast too. While I think that the acting in the TPCI dub eventually improved, it was really rough for the first couple of years and some of the voices never really got better in my opinion. Meowth's TPCI voice was always terrible in my opinion and even James' voice became worse over time, which was a shame since I think he sounded pretty good in some of the earlier seasons of the dub. I never cared for May or Misty's TPCI voices either, but to be fair for Misty, she didn't really have a ton of screentime to for the acttress to improve. Ash's voice was easily the worst at first, but I think Sarah improved a lot and deserves credit for that. Brock's voice was grating for awhile too, but I actually grew to like it quite a bit over the course of DP.

That being said, I agree that complaining about the voice cast change can be a bit excessive too. Not only because of how long it's been, but so many people would have grown up with the TPCI dub by now and would have become attached to those voices of the characters. I like the 4Kids cast more, but that was my first exposure to the anime. If I first watched the anime with TPCI dub, I might have preferred those voices instead. Plus, knowing that 4Kids was most likely keeping more money from the Japanese companies and how TPCI took over the card game, I think it was pretty inevitable that TPCI would take control of the anime away from them. They still definitely could have handled the transition a lot better and they could have easily kept the original cast on board instead of replacing nearly everyone, but from a business perspective, I can understand why they wanted to cut ties with 4Kids completely. I think that retroactively helps to make the voice cast change a bit easier to swollow when 4Kids losing the license was only a matter of time.

 

[mastermind lissi]

Could she in a perfect world? Yes.

Is it likely in our real world? No.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

On one hand, I can understand why it would still be a sore spot for fans after all this time. It was a sudden decision that caught everyone, even the 4Kids cast, off guard and I remember how intense the backlash was for awhile. We even had to ban discussion on the dub cast for awhile here because of how bad it got. I can understand why people would still prefer the 4Kids cast too. While I think that the acting in the TPCI dub eventually improved, it was really rough for the first couple of years and some of the voices never really got better in my opinion. Meowth's TPCI voice was always terrible in my opinion and even James' voice became worse over time, which was a shame since I think he sounded pretty good in some of the earlier seasons of the dub. I never cared for May or Misty's TPCI voices either, but to be fair for Misty, she didn't really have a ton of screentime to for the acttress to improve. Ash's voice was easily the worst at first, but I think Sarah improved a lot and deserves credit for that. Brock's voice was grating for awhile too, but I actually grew to like it quite a bit over the course of DP.

That being said, I agree that complaining about the voice cast change can be a bit excessive too. Not only because of how long it's been, but so many people would have grown up with the TPCI dub by now and would have become attached to those voices of the characters. I like the 4Kids cast more, but that was my first exposure to the anime. If I first watched the anime with TPCI dub, I might have preferred those voices instead. Plus, knowing that 4Kids was most likely keeping more money from the Japanese companies and how TPCI took over the card game, I think it was pretty inevitable that TPCI would take control of the anime away from them. They still definitely could have handled the transition a lot better and they could have easily kept the original cast on board instead of replacing nearly everyone, but from a business perspective, I can understand why they wanted to cut ties with 4Kids completely. I think that retroactively helps to make the voice cast change a bit easier to swollow when 4Kids losing the license was only a matter of time.

Yeah, it's really a shame how the higher-ups at 4Kids kind of tanked the company over time with consistently bad decision after decision (unfortunately, TPCi seems to have taken quite a few pages out of their book in terms of dubbing style the last decade, or so)- no fault of the staff or people who worked on the productions though, I still think decades later (save the visual edit people) they were highly talented and didn't deserve to be replaced that way: my unpopular opinion on this sub (but surprisingly some on Reddit and Serebii agree with it) is I would've liked to see the script writers also allowed to make the jump to TAJ at the time too in addition to the voice actors from 4Kids at the time.

I think the 4Kids era had a genuinely talented script writing team at times (when they weren't just making stuff up, to clarify), and the comedic timing was genuinely pretty good IMO (especially with Team Rocket): it was pretty rough for me not just in terms of the VA changes but the new "writing style" didn't go well with me as a child (this despite the fact JCC got promoted to the lead writer after the change and was already a writer in the later 4Kids dub: the writing staff also got cut down when TAJ/PUSA took over and you could feel it with the new way Ash was speaking ala "For sure," "a'course," "I got me" for a long time into mid BW before it finally stopped somewhere there, Misty's "Hold the phone," as well as TPCi's infamous TRio alliterations and such which go without saying, I think).

tl;dr Veronica Taylor will always be my favorite of the three English VAs Ash Ketchum had, like most, but given Sarah Natochenny has voiced him longer she does deserve respect for that and as much as I don't like how the transition was handled I wouldn't want children to go through what we all did back then as well.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

It's been like 17 years and I personally think she's moved on from the role. If TPCi or whoever manages the anime these days asked her to voice him again for whatever reason I'm sure she'd say yes if the logistics could be worked out, but I doubt she's expecting it.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

It's been like 17 years and I personally think she's moved on from the role. If TPCi or whoever manages the anime these days asked her to voice him again for whatever reason I'm sure she'd say yes if the logistics could be worked out, but I doubt she's expecting it.

Ash is still her favorite role, believe it or not: the important thing to note is that she wasn't replaced by choice, TPCi basically barged in recasting everyone behind their backs without even giving them the option to continue with the Series and forced her and the other 4Kids era mains out because they wanted to cut costs on the production back in late AG in the first place (TAJ was cheaper than 4Kids at the time, yes, both studios went defunct eventually in 2008 & 2011 respectively), and 4Kids had non-compete contracts for 2 years to boot that indicated blacklisting if they jumped ship as well = which is why there's bad blood between the original English VA majors and current ones even though they tend to get along with the non-recast roles and vice versa due to the backlash that ensued from it (was intense, and IMO, justified-- given what we had before, I can't think of a single performance I tbh thought was better post-change than pre-change).

I like that the Kazamatsuris/Jesse GS the IIs on here of the world had their takes age like spoiled milk, though, no the current English VAs still sound genuinely worse to me than the original English VAs 17 years later just like back then across the board (only Reddit and YouTube generally like the TPCi cast very much, but even then, they admit the 4Kids cast was better overall- the recast was honestly a mistake, imho).

I think, like most (Taylor wins every VC when there's a comparison online, shocker), Sarah Natochenny was simply not as good though- shame we got stuck permanently with an arguably poorer performance to me than someone else because several people evidently were/are okay with lower quality voice acting IMO, but it is what it is at the end of the day.

The recast is a dicey subject, a lot of people don't like the current cast while some others do (I'm in the former camp due to the drop I think was received from it, sadly I don't feel it recovered back to the pre-PUSA/TPCi days though-- when you make me miss even AG James, there's a serious problem with the vocal direction in modern times).